Resentment Grows between Christians and Muslims in France

The deadly attack on Charlie Hebdo puts a spotlight on the growing tensions between France's Muslim and immigrant communities and a large portion of French society, which is traditionally Catholic. The NewsHour’s Megan Thompson recently visited Marseille, one of the country’s most diverse cities, to report on the root of the conflict and the rise of anti-Muslim sentiment in France.

Iranian Attack on America and Allies Increasingly Likely – Intelligence Chief
THE GUARDIAN: Washington openly blames Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei for first time over Saudi ambassador plot

The head of US intelligence has warned that there is an increasing likelihood that Iran could carry out attacks in America or against US and allied targets around the world.

The warning from the director of national intelligence, James Clapper, reflects rapidly rising tensions over Iran's nuclear programme after the US and EU announced embargoes on the Iranian oil trade in the past few weeks, Israel leaked details of its preparation for a possible conflict and both the west and Iran boosted their military readiness in the Gulf.

The US plans to send a third aircraft carrier to the region in March, while Iran's military has threatened to block the entrance to the Gulf in the strait of Hormuz and is planning to hold naval exercises there in the next few weeks involving a host of new weapons.

Presenting his annual "worldwide threat assessment" to Congress, Clapper said an alleged plot to blow up the Saudi ambassador in Washington last year, which the US blamed on the Iran's Revolutionary Guard, "shows that some Iranian officials – probably including the supreme leader Ali Khamenei – have changed their calculus and are now more willing to conduct an attack in the United States in response in response to real or perceived US actions that threaten the regime."

Clapper added: "Iran's willingness to sponsor future attacks in the US or against our interests abroad probably will be shaped by Tehran's evaluation of the costs it bears for the plot against the ambassador as well as Iranian leaders' perceptions of US threats against the regime." » | Julian Borger, diplomatic editor | Tuesday, January 31, 2012

ARAB NEWS: Iran adds laser-guided munition to its armory » | Associated Press | Monday, January 30, 2012

Turkish and Syrian Forces in Tense Cross-border Standoff
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Turkish and Syrian forces engaged in a tense cross-border standoff on Thursday as a fresh military operation against Syrian dissidents threatened to spark a major regional crisis.

An elite Syrian army unit advanced to within quarter of a mile of the Turkish border, expanding an onslaught against opponents of President Bashar al-Assad.

Escalating an already acute refugee crisis, hundreds of Syrian civilians cut their way through a border fence into Turkey as they fled an advance into the frontier village of Khirbet al-Joz by the army's Fourth Division and Presidential Guard, led by Mr Assad's feared brother Maher.

The offensive brought Syrian and Turkish troops into eye-contact for the first time, significantly worsening the increasingly noxious relationship between the two neighbours.

Turkey has watched Mr Assad's brutal operation to quell opposition in Syria's restive northwest with growing alarm and has resorted to increasingly muscular diplomacy to demand an end to military operations close to the border. Most significantly, Turkish officials last week raised the possibility of a limited military incursion into northern Syria to protect civilians.

The offensive has already seen more than 10,000 refugees flee into Turkey.

With thousands more hiding out on the Syrian side of the border, the crisis is only liken to worsen as the army pushes northwards. » | Adrian Blomfield | Thursday, June 23, 2011

Iranian Viewpoint: Omanis Urge Reform While Saudis Denounce Bahrain Crackdown
Massive anti-government demonstrations took place in Oman and Saudi Arabia today. In Oman's southern port city of Salalah, thousands of demonstrators demanded better wages and jobs, saying the government's promised reforms are not enough. In Saudi Arabia's eastern city of Qatif, hundreds protested in solidarity with anti-government protestors in Bahrain, despite the ban on protests. They condemned the burning and destruction of Bahraini mosques by Saudi and Bahraini troops. Press TV reports:

Senior MP: Saudi Arabia Influenced by Power Illusions
FARS NEWS AGENCY: TEHRAN - A senior Iranian legislator blasted Saudi officials' recent provocative remarks against Tehran, and said the Saudi regime is under the illusion of having enough power to wage a war against Iran after it attacked the tiny Persian Gulf island of Bahrain through collaboration with the al-Khalifa regime.

"The Saudis are under illusion and they think that deployment of their forces in a tiny country like Bahrain and suppression of the defenseless people shows that they are powerful," Vice-Chairman of the parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Hossein Ebrahimi told FNA on Sunday.

Noting that Saudi Arabia could launch a military invasion of Bahrain through western assistance, Ebrahimi warned "they should rest assured that Iran's saber-rattling and power will make a burning hell for them". » | Sunday, April 24, 2011

Inside Story: Tensions in the Gulf
Internal unrest through the Arabian gulf.
 


But the country being painted as the aggressor is just 300 kilometres across the famous stretch of water - Iran.



The unrest is being billed as one between the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) nations and their Persian neighbour.



The foreign ministers of the six nations - Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates recently met in Riyadh. 



They released a statement criticising what they called Iran's blatant interference in internal affairs, particularly in Bahrain and Kuwait.

This comes after Iran's objection to Saudi Arabia sending in troops to Bahrain during the uprising there.
 


In return, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Monday the GCC statement was issued under the pressure of the US government and its allies.



This episode of Inside Story discusses what 'Iranian meddling' may or may not amount to, and just what the GCC and indeed Iran are achieving by ratcheting up the rhetoric at this time.



Inside Story, with presenter Kamahl Santamaria, discusses with guests: Hussein Shobokshi, a columnist for Asharq Alaw-sat newspaper; Ghanbar Naderi, a political commentator and jounalist; and Fahad Shulemi, a security analyst and a former colonel in the Kuwaiti army. 



This episode of Inside Story aired on Tuesday, April 5, 2011.

Tensions Rise over Bahrain 'Land Grab'

Oil Rises as Mideast Tensions Flare
Summary of business headlines: Oil prices rally on new Suez Canal concerns; Fed raises forecasts, but inflation shows up in January; Borders files for bankruptcy; Wall Street ends at new multi-year highs

Egypt Gripped by Rising Muslim-Christian Tensions
Hundreds of Egyptian Muslims protesting against what they allege are abuses by Egypt's Coptic Church. Photograph: TIME
TIME: Around 200 men flooded out of the al-Qa'id Ibrahim mosque into the midday sunlight following the Friday afternoon prayers in Alexandria. They held up banners before the hundreds of black-clad riot police who were there to greet them, and immediately began to chant. "Shenouda is the enemy of God," they yelled, referring to Pope Shenouda III, the head of the Coptic Church, Egypt's largest religious minority. "Shenouda is an infidel ... State security, where is your Islam? Why did you leave the criminals alone?"

Much of the rage expressed by the members of the hard-line Salafi sect of Islam stems from one woman. Not much is known about Camilia Shehata, a priest's wife from Upper Egypt, whose story (or lack thereof) has gripped the Middle East's most populous nation since the summer, sparking waves of angry protests and emotional editorials. Shehata disappeared from her home for several days in July after having reportedly converted to Islam — some say in an effort to get a divorce, which is not permitted by the Coptic Church. At first, the Christians protested — accusing Muslims of kidnapping a Christian and forcing her to convert. When she re-emerged, it was the Muslims' turn. Many now believe Shehata was forcibly returned to her home and the Coptic Church by state authorities, only to become sequestered against her will within the confines of a monastery.

"We do not know anything except that she was married to a priest and she ran away from that marriage. Everything else is just rumors, and that is the problem," says Amr Khafagy, the editor in chief of the independent al-Shorouq newspaper, which has run four stories and an editorial about Shehata. "The government never said the absolute truth and the church never said the absolute truth. And the media blew these rumors out of proportion."

It's not the first time a Christian has converted to Islam, but conversion has long been a sensitive issue in a state where Copts worry about rising Muslim religiosity and Muslims increasingly see Copts as existing outside the law. It is also one of the first times the state has interfered in an individual's conversion, claims Rafiq Habib, a Coptic intellectual. If they hadn't, he says, this never would have gotten so out of hand. "From the public perspective, it was a sign that the role of the church and the position of the Copts has changed in the last years — that they have become allies of the state and allies of the President."

Wafaa Constantine, who was also the wife of a priest, reportedly converted to Islam in 2004 and wound up in a monastery as well. Neither woman has appeared in public since their returns to the church, and the Salafi protests of late have invoked both names. "Today we hold a standoff to free our sister hostages from the church," explained one of the protesters, Atef Wael. "Whenever a sister converts to Islam, they keep her in the church and they torture her to make her appear before the media saying that she is a Christian, not a Muslim." Other protesters outside the mosque on Friday and in recent weeks have displayed pictures of women they allege are Shehata, Constantine and others held captive by the church. Some sobbed as they chanted slogans comparing their struggle to the Crusades. >>> Abigail Hauslohner, Alexandria | Monday, November 08, 2010

Brutality in Egypt Prompts Facebook/Twitter/YouTube Protest

Tensions Rise as Jobless Migrants Are Blamed for the Pain in Spain
TIMES ONLINE: The food bank in Vic, 40 miles north of Barcelona, occupies an old bakery in a side street. Each day hundreds of unemployed stream in to collect handouts of bread, milk, pasta and other necessities. The overwhelming majority are immigrants, predominantly Moroccans and sub-Saharan Africans who flocked to Vic in the past few years to work on building sites or in the huge pig farms and meat factories that surround the town and give it its distinctive smell.

At least 10,000 came, swelling Vic’s population by a quarter. They did the hard, dirty work and were welcomed. Not any more. Half lost their jobs when Spain’s construction bubble burst in 2008 and brought the good times to an abrupt end.

A deeply unpopular €15 billion (£12.7 billion) austerity package rushed through parliament yesterday will make life even harder. On top of that, the immigrants are now the target of Platform for Catalonia, Spain’s equivalent of the BNP, which is based in Vic. “Control immigration — stop the crisis,” its leaflets proclaim.

“They insult us. They say maybe we’re the cause of the crisis, that we take their jobs. It’s not fair and it’s not nice,” said Mercy Omoroagbon, 30, as she collected her handout. She arrived from Nigeria in 2002, lost both her cleaning jobs last year and now lives off the charity of friends.

“They say the Spanish can’t work because of the immigrants. It’s not true. We did the work the Spanish didn’t want or wouldn’t do,” said Joy Ekechukwu, 33, another Nigerian who came to Spain 11 years ago, lost her factory job and now struggles to support her two young children. Read on and comment >>> Martin Fletcher | Friday, May 28, 2010

Tensions Mount in Bosnia over Gay Festival
THE MOSCOW NEWS WEEKLY: SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina - Posters condemning homosexuals have appeared in Sarajevo ahead of this month's first-ever gay festival in Bosnia, prompting an international organization to condemn what it called "attempts to incite violence.''

Two Muslim imams have been quoted as criticizing the timing of the five-day festival, which opens Sept. 24 and will occur during the holy month of Ramadan.

Islam prohibits homosexuality, and Sarajevo is at least 85 percent Muslim.

Neither the head of the Islamic Community in Bosnia, Mustafa Ceric, nor his institution has officially reacted to the festival, which will include films and art exhibitions. But two local imams in Bosnia have condemned it.

"We will not grab them by the neck on the street, but we have to say: This is immoral ... a promotion of ideas that are in violation with religion,'' Seid Smajkic, an imam from the southern city of Mostar, was quoted as saying in Friday's Dnevni Avaz, a daily newspaper.

Another local imam, Sulejman Bulgari, said on television Thursday night that the Quran forbids homosexuality and that the holy book is clear about that.

Neither imam was available for an interview on Friday, the Muslim day of worship.

Several posters have appeared in the streets of Sarajevo this week, saying "Death to Gays.'' Police quickly removed them. Tensions Mount in Bosnia over Gay Festival >>> | September 9, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Dust Jacket Hardcover, direct from the publishers (US) >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback, direct from the publishers (US) >>>